


Late Nights

by M3tt3m



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Psychologists & Psychiatrists, johnny and mark are brothers, receptionist - Freeform, talk of teen suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 16:49:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11422104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/M3tt3m/pseuds/M3tt3m
Summary: Ten had been working as Johnny Seo’s receptionist for a couple of years. Johnny, after having recieved his Ph.D. in psychology and working at another clinic for some years, had opened a clinic and hired on the young Thai man as his receptionist/secretary soon after. Johnny had been engaged at the time to a young medicine student, a girl he had been close with during his years at university.





	Late Nights

**Author's Note:**

> posted this on my tumblr (hit-here-johnten) a while ago and just now realized i never posted on here...

Ten had been working as Johnny Seo’s receptionist for a couple of years. Johnny, after having recieved his Ph.D. in psychology and working at another clinic for some years, had opened a clinic and hired on the young Thai man as his receptionist/secretary soon after. Johnny had been engaged at the time to a young medicine student, a girl he had been close with during his years at university. 

The boy, Ten, had been a few years younger than him when he had hired him on. He was still a student and was willing to work for close to nothing. That was an important factor to someone who was in the process of setting up a new clinic and didn’t technically have any income yet to make salary of. That the boy was quite intriguing and attractive had nothing to do with it he would later argue to no avail. His fiancé had only met the Thai boy for the first time a month after the clinic officially opened its doors.

She had not been impressed to say the least. She was the jealous type, something that had always bothered Johnny quite a bit. Even the smallest thing could set her off and there was nothing he could do when she started suspecting something. He could go on and on about the psychological implications about her mental health based on this alone but was also aware that that would not be conductive to a healthy relationship. They had grown apart in the years out of school. When it was no longer a procrastinated paper that was the most stressful thing in their lives but actual real life problems cracks had started to appear in the foundation of their relationship. Johnny wasn’t stupid, he knew the young receptionist would send him appreciative glances when he wasn’t looking, he had caught him staring at his ass a few too many times not to. He was, however, also engaged and cheating was never on the plate for him. He wasn’t sure if his fiancé had caught one of these glances too or she was just merely speculating on the fact that he, a bisexual man, was working with a young attractive boy as his only employee, an employee that was also very outwardly not straight.  
She had demanded that he fire the boy the moment they had gotten home that day. Johnny had refused, he certainly hadn’t done anything wrong and the boy was surprisingly good at his job. He had no intention on laying off a trusted, not to mention his only, employee because his fiancé had gone mad with jealousy. They had eventually gotten to an understanding but her suspicions had persisted and did to the very end.

One night Johnny had been working late at the office, he had had a difficult patient that day. A young teenager dealing with severe social anxiety and depressions, that was also as a consequence of this, having suicidal thoughts. He had stayed late to contemplate what treatment plan would be the best, given the difficult situation and all the external influences affecting the child as well. Ten had stayed late with him despite having been told to go home earlier, he had sat there with Johnny, suppling him with dinner, coffee and a little bit of comfort where Johnny allowed it. Johnny wasn’t thrilled that Ten was skipping his night classes to stay with him but the boy was unmovable. 

When he had gone home he had been met by screaming and accusations of cheating. He had had enough. He had told her to just get out, it was his apartment after all, he was done with her lack of trust in him. He had never done anything to warrant such distrust but for some reason it had been an ever growing problem from the day they had gotten together. Johnny was an attractive man, even in his thirties and having the stress of his profession starting to take a toll on his body. He kept himself in great shape and was proud of that. That night she had thrown the engagement ring in his face and called him a plethora of mean and hurtful words and accused him of actions that lay beyond his capabilities. The only thing that that accomplished was making Johnny all that more certain in his decision.

He started staying later at the office, he had no one to go home to anyway, so why not fill all that empty space with work. Ten took notice not long after. It didn’t take long for the boy to approach Johnny on the matter, cautiously asking how things were going with his now ex fiancé. Johnny felt no reason to hide that the relationship had come to an end. Ten took the news with grace, no big dramatic reaction like the young man normally would to things he deemed ‘drama’. The subject quickly changed and things continued on as normally. Almost.

It wasn’t noticeable at first, it had been subtle he had to give him that, but Johnny was trained in the science of human behavior so it would take a lot more than subtle to get something like this past him. Ten’s behavior had changed, subtly of course, but changed it had. He started to stay longer at the office on night where he didn’t have classes, he would initiate physical contact a lot more than before and flaunted his young lithe body whenever he could.

Johnny would like to have been able to say that he was completely unaffected, but that was far from the truth. He had taken notice of how flexible the boy truly was, how his body was just right perfectly proportional despite his lacking height. How he had just the perfect height to be tucked under his chin in a hug. How round and plumb that perky bum of his truly was. Had it just been his body that Johnny took notice of he would have not been this affected, however it was the warmth of the boy’s personality that really got the ball rolling. Ten was thoughtful, smart, positive and trusting, something Johnny had been missing so dearly in his last relationship. It had become clear how unhealthy their relationship had become in the last few months after they were no longer together, and Johnny only really regrets not having ended it sooner than he did.

It had been almost six months after the fateful night where he had broken things off with his then fiancé. Six months before things in his life once again changed from the structured and static routine it had fallen into after the break up. It had been a late night at the clinic once again and Ten was also staying late to help out. He had been free to leave hours earlier but had chosen to stay and offer some much needed support to a shaken Johnny. Johnny dealt with many patients day after day, all of them with their specific problems. Every single one of them affected Johnny, some more than other but all had an impact on the man. Johnny didn’t shy away from this but rather embraced it, feeling that the one day that he grew indifferent to others’ suffering be the day that he gives up this career. That day had been one of the toughest yet, having received the news that the child from that fateful late night had attempted suicide. He had failed. His treatment had not been successful. It hurt his heart and soul that he had failed this young child. That he had not managed to help them see that living truly was worth living or that suicide was just a permanent solution to a temporary problem. He had received news that they had been found in time and survived but that didn’t alleviate his feelings of failure. It was by no hand of his that the child truly hadn’t end their life but rather luck and some excellent doctors doing their best. He had put his head in his hands and let the tears escape. When the first sob left him there was no stopping him. He broke in to piece. Ten having been close by, and aware of what had transpired entered the room to comfort the broken man. Ten gently removed Johnny’s hands from his face replacing them with his own, cradling Johnny’s face in his hands. He didn’t try to convince Johnny that everything was okay or what happened wasn’t as big of a deal as it was, it wouldn’t change Johnny’s opinion in any way anyway. Instead he just told him that he was there for him, that he wasn’t alone and that he wasn’t leaving him to deal with this on his own either. Johnny’s arms came up to cradle the smaller boy in his arms, burying his face in his chest and letting the warmth sooth his aching heart just a little. Ten put his arms around him tightly, holding him close and letting him know that he had no intention of letting go. He ran a hand through the soft locks to try to calm him, as well as keeping his head firmly against his chest to try to guide him towards breathing evenly.

From that day on their relationship grew immensely deeper Johnny’s feelings for the young Thai receptionist also deepened. He would have found it troublesome if it hadn’t been for the fact that he was convinced it was mutual. Then the day and the question Johnny always hated and feared.

“Why did you choose to become a therapist?” Johnny just stared at him “right, psychologist. ‘there’s a difference, Ten’, sorry” Ten took a bite from his sandwich. After swallowing he gave Johnny a look that clearly said ‘so?’ indicating for him to actually answer his question.

Johnny fully intended to tell Ten the same story he told everyone else, the generic ‘I just want to help people because helping is my calling’ but that was not what came out of his mouth.

“My brother.” Johnny couldn’t believe that he had actually said it.

“He was 15.” the look of realization in Ten’s eyes was terrifying to Johnny.

Ten put his sandwich down and reached his hands out, gripping Johnny’s larger one with both. It had been trembling.

“I was 18. You know, I resented him for a while… I just didn’t understand how he could do that to us, to me. How could he just leave us, me like that? Then I read his note.” The words felt like razor blades cutting up his throat as he spoke. Ten didn’t say anything just squeezed his hand as reassurance.

“It was my fault. I thrived under pressure, school was a breeze, I was popular and attractive. I was going to try out for an entertainment company as a model, and I had a shot. Mark well, Mark didn’t do well with pressure.” Johnny let out a shuddering breath before continuing.

“People expected him to be a mini me, he felt pressured to do well in everything but Mark didn’t do well with pressure. He was spread too thin and when things started crumbling he couldn’t take it anymore.” Johnny paused.

“He was my baby brother” Johnny’s voice broke at the last two words.

“But I didn’t see the signs, I weren’t there for him. It was my responsibility to take care of him but I was too far up my own ass to see what was happening right in front of me!” Ten squeezed his hand again, trying to calm him down a little and let him know that he was there.

“I want to make sure no kid to ever feel that there is no other option, that dying is the only way to make the pain stop. I don’t want anyone else to suffer the same fate as my baby brother.” Ten hadn’t been able to hold the tears back. Ten gently put a hand on Johnny’s chin pulling him into the softest kiss Johnny had ever experienced. Ten put all the emotions that he couldn’t vocalize yet into it.

“It wasn’t your fault. I know you probably won’t ever believe that but I need to say it and I need you to hear it. I need you to know that even if you can’t see that that I will always be by your side to remind you.” Ten was looking straight into Johnny’s teary eyes as he told him this.

That was the first night that Ten went home with Johnny, and it wasn’t the last either.


End file.
